Dr. Sue McCreadie, a pediatrician and women's coach, joins Melissa Joy to discuss how mindset and emotions impact financial well-being. Drawing from her experience in pediatric care, Dr. Sue shares insights on promoting mothers' health and mindsets. This transformative conversation covers the connection between women's roles, taking control of one's life, and financial empowerment.
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Links are being provided for information purposes only. The information herein is general and educational in nature and should not be considered legal or tax advice. Tax laws and regulations are complex and subject to change, which can materially impact investment results. Pearl Planning cannot guarantee that the information herein is accurate, complete, or timely. Pearl Planning makes no warranties with regard to such information or results obtained by its use and disclaims any liability arising out of your use of, or any tax position taken in reliance on, such information. Consult an attorney or tax professional regarding your specific situation. Please note, changes in tax laws or regulations may occur at any time and could substantially impact your situation. Pearl Planning financial advisors do not render advice on tax matters. You should discuss any tax matters with the appropriate professional.
Dr. Sue McCreadie, a pediatrician and women's coach, joins Melissa Joy to discuss how mindset and emotions impact financial well-being. Drawing from her experience in pediatric care, Dr. Sue shares insights on promoting mothers' health and mindsets. This transformative conversation covers the connection between women's roles, taking control of one's life, and financial empowerment.
Listen and Learn:
Resources:
Links are being provided for information purposes only. The information herein is general and educational in nature and should not be considered legal or tax advice. Tax laws and regulations are complex and subject to change, which can materially impact investment results. Pearl Planning cannot guarantee that the information herein is accurate, complete, or timely. Pearl Planning makes no warranties with regard to such information or results obtained by its use and disclaims any liability arising out of your use of, or any tax position taken in reliance on, such information. Consult an attorney or tax professional regarding your specific situation. Please note, changes in tax laws or regulations may occur at any time and could substantially impact your situation. Pearl Planning financial advisors do not render advice on tax matters. You should discuss any tax matters with the appropriate professional.
Welcome to the Women's Money Wisdom Podcast. I'm Melissa Joy, a Certified Financial planner and the Founder of Pearl Planning. My goal is to help you streamline and organize your finances, navigate big money decisions with confidence and be strategic in order to grow your wealth. As a woman, you work hard for your money and I'm here to help you make the most of it. Now let's get into the show. Welcome back to the Women's Money Wisdom Podcast, it's Melissa Joy here today and I am thrilled to be joined by Dr. Sue. Dr. Sue is a pediatric physician and coach who guides midlife women through the maze of motherhood, marriage and the magic of mindset shift with soulful medicine. Soulful medicine is dedicated to empowering wise midlife women, or, as she calls them, mamas, to break free from low-vibes stress cycles and create lives of soul-filling, sustainable joy. I met Sue over COVID. We found each other in some I can't even remember how, but some community zooms and have followed her ever since on Instagram. Really love the voice that you have, sue. Welcome to the podcast.
Sue McCreadie:Oh, thank you so much for having me, Melissa. I'm excited to serve here. Thank you.
Melissa Joy:Well, we're really in the intersection of life. I think we share a lot of situations, I guess I would say, and so do our listeners, as women who are really taking ownership of themselves and their lives and their money. And you posted something at the beginning of the year that was talking about a quiz that interrelates to who you are and how you relate to money and all sorts of parts of your life, which made me want to bring you on as a guest. But I want to give everybody else a minute to meet you, so give us a little introduction beyond my kind of 30-second intro.
Sue McCreadie:Yeah, well, thank you, melissa, and for being here. It's such an honor to be with you and serve women. Yes, so I am a pediatric physician and also a coach for midlife mamas. That's sort of my focus. It's mindset, motherhood and marriage. So all where we are right now in this sweet spot and I've been serving kids for over 20 years, so two decades of helping them navigate their health and really aligning their diet with their DNA, as I say. So kids who are struggling with any sort of list of chronic problems, really helping them gear up their nutrition to better serve them and heal. And along the way, the mamas are always like what about me, dr Sue? What about me, dr Sue? And I've tried all different things and reiterated and landed a couple of years ago like, oh my goodness, like this is my second calling, like really leading women in this way to master their mindset, which is like perfect for the money world, right, it's like 80 to 20.
Sue McCreadie:We so often we don't start with mindset, but we got to get to the mindset to work it out everywhere else, like that's a big part of what I've learned in my financial learnings is like it's about mastering your mindset and your emotions, right and so, to me, my true calling with Soful Medicine and working with midlife women is that the more I help them master their mindset and their emotions, they can there and teach their children how to do the same. Because, as I say, like the gun is a neutral, the person who picks up the gun that's emotionally charged is the problem, right and so to me, it's like the ripple effect like I get so emotional thinking about that. Like the ripple effect is through women. Like you don't get into this physical earth without coming through a woman's body.
Melissa Joy:I just had my 49th birthday to be completely vulnerable and I called my mom and said thank you for making this day possible. So yes, agreed.
Sue McCreadie:Yeah, and I turn 52 next week and I'm celebrating like I think this is like the juice of life. I really do. I'm having so much fun. I'm a mom of three, so my kids are all teens in high school and college and we're having fun. You know, it's a really kind of juicy part of life, especially if you learn to me to how to master your mind, because even all of us will like stumble. We get picked up, we get activated by different things, but if you like fall down, it's all about like okay, how do I stand back up and keep moving down, whether that's for your health or your finances, you know it all matters mindset.
Melissa Joy:I feel like I'm thinking into my friends' text chains or I have a few, you know, kind of trusted contact text groups with my fellow financial planning business owners and there's a lot of shift and evolution and owning who you are or if you aren't, you know, like kind of pain and suffering when it comes to this midlife, which midlife feels a lot younger than I thought it was when I was growing up.
Sue McCreadie:I agree, I thought my dad was so old when we had our 50th birthday party for him, like it's a surprise. I'm like, dude, you're old and now I'm like, wait, I'm 52. I'm young. Yeah, there's a lot of personality behind it, right, and really owning your authenticity, like really owning like who you are and what you bring to this world, I think is so beautiful.
Melissa Joy:Well, I we are going to share a quiz in the show notes for this episode from Dr Sue, and I did take the quiz and I came out as a visionary mama.
Sue McCreadie:Of course you did. I was like. Of course, melissa is a visionary.
Melissa Joy:Shocker. I am familiar with these terms in all sorts of any personality assessment. It's like this is who you are, the ideas are great, and then you need a team to support you when it comes to getting things done. And I've really, you know, I had to struggle through earlier in my life and career, kind of figuring things out on my own. But sitting in the moment and place that we are, I find so many people are either seeking help with a coach it's about their life, whether it's about improving their health, physical health, mental health and certainly, you know, these are personal and private conversations I have with people about their money as well. But what is connected with all of those discussions and conversations is that for some people you need a team and a community. You're not just on your own to figure things out. How do you kind of approach that?
Sue McCreadie:Yeah, so I feel like you know. So a big part of self development, which is the world that I'm in right, is really learning more about yourself.
Melissa Joy:The more we can learn about ourselves. That's scary, it could be. Yeah, it's no, I love it too.
Sue McCreadie:But it is like because you get to be vulnerable and you get to really like hold a mirror up and like look at yourself, but also, like I want, I'm encouraging all the women to take the quiz, because the gift of the quiz is like you get to learn your gifts, because all of us have gifts you know in the world and then you also learn, get to learn your greatest challenge. So there's some patterns and there's generalizations, right, and the truth is you're more than a visionary mama, melissa, and I'm more than an inspiration mama. My guess is that you also have a lot of detail in you, because, my goodness, you work with numbers all day long, yes, and also we're both moms, so there's a lot of giver in us, right. So there's the visionary mama, the inspiration mama, the giver mama and the detail mama, and each of us have these gifts that we bring to the world and once we own it, like once I realize like, wait, that's naturally who I am Like.
Sue McCreadie:I am the inspiration mama. I'm like the sunshine, like one of my besties she called me Susie Sunshine, like that was my nickname for her, and so many times I would try to like dim the light, just dim the light. It's all like too much. Like stop being so positive. Why are you like? You know it's all too much. But then I got to this point, kind of midlife, where I was like, hmm, what if I really step in and just own this, like I am Susie Sunshine, like that is who I am, I'm a bright light, and use those gifts and also, though, and also hold up the mirror and look at as an inspiration.
Sue McCreadie:Mama, one of the hardest parts is slowing down to get into the details and that's where a detail mama shines, like a detail mama is in the. I always say the divine is in the details, right? I mean think of all the numbers in the spreadsheets that you go through, like you get. If you number crunch and you look at the details, you're going to find some divine gifts in there. And the detail mamas are organized. They're like the spreadsheet makers, they're like the people who organize the carpools and you're like thank you for organizing this carpool.
Melissa Joy:Yes, we need those people for sure we need those people.
Sue McCreadie:And the hard part for the detail mama is she can get a little dry right, like life gets a little boring because everything's so routine and everything's so perfectly placed Right. So it's kind of like this dynamic of how we all flow together that really works. We're all you know, we all need each other and I just find the beauty of that in the personalities.
Melissa Joy:And how do those personalities? Have you seen any patterns, when you look at your personality assessments, for how people approach money?
Sue McCreadie:Yes. So the funny part when I was thinking about this I was like, oh my gosh, yeah, of course there's like money, personality, types. So this is funny too, because you just think of people like this may not be you, but think of people that you know in your life, right. So a visionary mama she's like she's the Beyonce's of the world. She's like the CEO, the chief. You know, she twirl on them haters. If there's not a path, she's going to create her path. And she's so good at making money, so she's really really good at making money.
Sue McCreadie:And then the inspiration mama well, I own that. I'm really good at supporting the economy, otherwise known as spending money. I am like the easiest person to sell anything to because I love it. I get inspired. I see another shiny object. I'm like I want that, I want to support this person or that entity, like I love paying for people's services, like, yes, please, more, right. So inspirational mamas generally are like the spenders of the world. And then the giver mamas, as you can imagine they give their, they share their money. They're. They're like how much do you need here? Do you need my diamond ring here? You go Like they're just like here's a shirt off my back.
Melissa Joy:They're always.
Sue McCreadie:They're always willing to, you know, watch their dollar and find money, you know, in order to support, or their time, effort, energy to support right. And then there's the detailed mamas, who are the awesome savers. Maybe I'll have a detailed person in our lives to help us like save, save our money, save. So, yeah, I think it's fun to think of people in your life like maybe your, your partner or even your kids, like you can see these trends in your kids too.
Melissa Joy:Totally. It's not a familial. There's no genetics when it comes to the personality traits, typically of the next generation, and I see that from the ground up, not from a quiz, but from how I kind of uncover people's money lives in our financial planning process, where you know everything that you describe. I'm like, oh, that's so and so that's so, and so I am like I can definitely tell. I will tell my clients like my personal money strength is not to be the most specific on budget or to spend the least. I would prefer to go and make more money. If you tell me that, like we don't have enough, I would totally prefer to do that and I think you know in both of the ways that we're approaching things, you're honoring who you are instead of turning you into a system or process that doesn't fit.
Melissa Joy:I love that Because not everybody's the same and of course there are some personal finance gurus out there that just say, hey, no debt or I will shame you if you choose to spend on this or that. But really, like you know, the world goes round with all different types of people, and that includes the way that you approach money. You can really play to your strengths and then accommodate for areas where you may need to work on things or have weaknesses, by acknowledging what the challenges are or identifying opportunities.
Sue McCreadie:Yeah, and hiring help.
Melissa Joy:Yes, and like also having a dialogue because you say you work on. You know, like you acknowledge that many people are in a relationship and you're working on marriage for these midlife mamas. You know like if there's two of you in the room and you have two different strengths and also different weaknesses, then you know having someone else in the room that can be a third party to help bridge the gap. So oftentimes we work with you know we work with ideally both members of the household in the relationship and we're giving space for each other to have a conversation and honor each other's both concerns and strengths in a way that feels less chaotic than just when you're like why did you just buy this?
Sue McCreadie:Right, this is so perfect, melissa, because, yeah, well, first, I always wanna oh, so many things. I wanna share the story. The story there's time. The story that comes to mind is my husband and I. Okay, because this is just a fun money story, when this is what our money conversations used to be, because I'm an inspiration mama and he's a detailed dad Like. So we're kind of the polar opposites. He's the saver on the spender.
Melissa Joy:It's a really great combo, as long as you can acknowledge where you're coming from.
Sue McCreadie:Yes, so our money conversations when we first got married 20,. Well, we're about to celebrate 22 years.
Melissa Joy:Okay.
Sue McCreadie:So our money conversations used to go like this First we try to avoid it, right, cause we spend saved differently, right. And then we would come we would have when we actually finally had to have one in the beginning of our marriage, and then it would be like an explosion and then we would like walk off Like it was like a duck fighting flutters and then see you later and that was kind of so. We've had a whole evolution of that of honoring each other's personalities, our tendencies, our strengths, the things that you know, kind of how we and hiring help I can't emphasize that enough Like hiring the coach for me it's a lot of personal development, of learning myself who I am, where I best serve and playing to my strength. And also for our marriage, like hiring a fiduciary, like hiring someone who's like reassuring all the time, every quarter, like nope, you're on track, it's all okay. You know what I mean. So I think that that has been super supportive in our.
Sue McCreadie:You know, I like to call it the abundance journey, the journey of abundance, learning your personality types. And also what I teach a lot with mamas is because I just work with the moms like I don't work with the other partner, yeah, and they're like how does this work, dr Sue? I mean we got to get him in the room, or you know. And I'm like, actually we don't, because the more you work on yourself and your relationship, the more you work on you, your relationships automatically evolve. That's why I've never read a parenting book. You know, I just keep working on myself and my relationships with my kids keep growing, and same with my husband. So I love that too, that you know empowering women to know like the more they work on themselves, you know that automatically the ripple of fact is to those they love.
Melissa Joy:Well, I find I agree. When I hear you say hiring professionals, I think of a variety of things, like one of the things off the bat was I found myself at a moment in time when my children were younger and I was commuting to a job where I had a good friend who was also a business owner, as a financial planner, who was like Melissa, like you're trying to make daycare work and you guys do not have the time for that, you need to consider a nanny or someone who is more dedicated to making this work. It was a game changer for me at a time where I just did not even think there was another pathway. I just had to, you know, like grin and bear it, and that goes on along the line.
Melissa Joy:In my own business, I definitely have found huge value with coaches who come in and give me a third party assessment, diagnostic. Oftentimes, or most of the time, there's no surprises, but it helps me to organize, it helps me to galvanize, it helps me to take action. It also helps me communicate with my team. In my personal life, I am a huge proponent of therapy if it makes sense for you, and working with a therapist for me has helped me to realize where I can control things and where I need to control my reaction and not, you know, be able to be changing things. And it just helps me to have my mature, my inner self, to the appropriate age for you know my external age as well on my own terms.
Sue McCreadie:Yeah, I think that that big thing, because all of us like control, like we all like to have certainty in our life, right, and it's one we have uncertainty that our emotions go cray cray Like in the market. You that.
Melissa Joy:Oh yeah.
Sue McCreadie:Right and you and Melissa is probably telling you guys, sit on your hands, don't do anything, just caution to the wind, right, but yeah, just the we all in this, wanting this control and certainty in our life. We it's funny that we focus on what we can't control. So we, like, can't control the stock market, you know we can't control the weather, but yet so many times we're focused on these things that we can't control versus focusing on the 99% of the things that we can control, like what you know what our thoughts are, you know the emotions that we're creating, the actions that we decide are not you know, to take or not take right and then therefore getting the results. So I feel like that's a lot of you know. I mean. So many examples come to mind, like even coaching a mom who, you know, recently went through a divorce and anytime the email comes through because they're going through a financial issue right now, right, she?
Melissa Joy:just gets, like you know the worst.
Sue McCreadie:What's next? Yeah, and then derailed in essence. And there's so many easy tricks to just interrupt that pattern. Like it's mind-blowingly easy, right Things that you can do in a nanosecond, where and then you start laughing. It's like it's in its base in psychology, like Pavla's dog I feel like everyone learned that in like 101 somewhere. Like you just link a new reaction to that stimulus that used to make you go crazy. You just create like a funny thing from it and then you start laughing. So every time the email comes in, you know from the X and you just want to, you know. Then you're like, ah, like it works Right.
Melissa Joy:Or deep, like breathe deeply and intentionally before you react, like get that oxygen in the system. So so you're not hyperventilating and really compounding the issues, true, so true. And having your coach you know whether it's a financial professional like myself or you being able to know you and then advise you in the context of you and who you are, not only in a money quiz, but also you know the real real, I think, can be so powerful. It's not for everyone, but for many people it can feel like you're on a journey toward positivity, toward incremental, like change. That's good.
Sue McCreadie:Yes, and I also agree, like I'm a big proponent of group coaching. So that's another segment of what I do and and I Feel that way because women, like our natural tendency is, you know, we want to try to be like go it alone, like we think that like, oh, no one has this problem, I'm on my own, I can figure this out. I don't want to be a pain to anybody else. We try to just like figure out on our own and like suffer. We're in actuality like transformation can be fun. We can tell me more yeah, tell me more, and it can be quick and easy by learning these things, but especially learning them together.
Sue McCreadie:So, like once a month, I get these women together on a zoom and we have fun. Like we have fun and we learn, and we focus on one thing like this month we're gonna be focusing on connection and relationship and really using some techniques about how to improve a challenging relationship. And your relationship could be your relationship with money. It could be your relationship, or it could be with time, or it could be with the x, or it could be with a child that you're struggling with. And when we learn these really simple frameworks of you know, see the pattern. Use the pattern and create a new pattern is like an easy framework that I teach. We can move forward together, we can laugh, we can see the similarities and also be blessed by each other's differences. Right? So an inspirational mama and a detailed mama and a visionary mama and a giver mama all in the same room together it's just like exponentially gonna Create better solutions, right? So that to me is like the gold as well like one-on-one, but also really working together as a group.
Melissa Joy:It's so interesting because in modern society We've Got this loneliness. We can see everyone and what's going on when it comes to social media and yet we don't Always show what's really happening on a surface, which is sometimes appropriate but also gives you a false sense of what everybody else's reality is, and we just sometimes lack community. So I love what you're doing is is creating a fostering community where some people might not have that, otherwise they might not have new relationships because all of their time is being devoted to just making the household work and things like that. So I think there's something to be said in what both of us do to be real in finding a place you can be real and also finding a place you can be safe to talk about. You know not only what's working, which it sounds like your work does and I know my work does is like hey, here's where you're doing a great job and you may not have known it, but also like where is it safe to say I Hate this about my life and I need to change it?
Melissa Joy:or I would like to focus and work on Making, for example, this relationship better. Where's the safe space to have this important community? And it sounds like you're creating that.
Sue McCreadie:Hmm, it's so great and, yeah, we meet. We meet once and then your quiz is the invitation in, so you get to take oh, nice, and then you'll be invited into the community. But yes, we also just connecting outside of social media. So there's an online platform that we connect in where it's safe. The whole part is like safety and security of just being authentic, being yourself and, you know, being vulnerable, because vulnerability is what heals. That's the thing like. If we all try to be these shiny, perfect objects, we just bounce off of each other. But when we're really vulnerable and Open up and realize like, wow, someone else is going through this. Or wow, I'm not alone in this. Or wow, this isn't gonna Create disaster for my entire life, forever. Or wow, I haven't totally screwed up my kids yet, it's like, yeah, I've been there, yeah, we've done that, and then, and then healing happens. And that's what I think the beauty is is that healing happens together, not alone. Healing is a, it's a together process.
Melissa Joy:Yeah, there's something, especially in the areas that we specialize in, health and wealth, that we don't have as much context for healthy conversation, that is vulnerable, that is real and authentic, and so you know, what we try to do with this podcast is break down some of the barriers to True communication when it comes to money and and give you some. You know, just have a real conversation about money, like you and I are doing, and the work that you're doing is that as well. So recognize, if you're a listener, you are working on that muscle of communication about money and health in this episode, something that we all need as a society. We need to be able to do better. You know like it shouldn't be that you're more comfortable talking about death and taxes than how to manage your financial accounts.
Sue McCreadie:Hmm, yes, true, true that. And also with kids. Like I'm such a big proponent, I think of just, yeah, having that conversation with kids Spend, save and share that's like Started the conversation and like they were like this big spend, save and share. What do we do with our money? We spend it, we save it, we share it. Now we talk about like investing yeah, starting to understand, but like spend, save and share and Normalizing the talk of it. Right, like normalizing talking about finances has been a huge thing and really seeing the repercussions of that and our children really respecting and honoring money for sure.
Melissa Joy:That is, money isn't Physically present in a young person's life the way it was when we were growing up. So you saw mom and dad get out the checkbook and write the check versus. It's different than swiping a card and even balance the checkbook and now you know the wallet is all plastic. It's not the pennies and coins that you might add up to go to the grocery store and buy your pack of gum or something like that.
Melissa Joy:So adding in those discussions, I that you may take for granted and think your kid is picking up on are so powerful. And then also just talking as a family. This goes especially for those that they've kind of had an overabundant, like there's too much spending and not enough investing or saving, where it really feels like you're hurting the kids because you want to give them everything in a world where it feels like everyone else has so much. But it's really a gift to talk about limits, to talk about boundaries, to talk about as a family. We're focusing on this. You know this financial aspect so we can pay for college or so we can do this or that. So some of those like modeling, some of those discussions could be extraordinarily powerful and you may wake up one day and be like I never had that conversation and now I've got a 16 year old or something. So great examples.
Sue McCreadie:Yeah, and really fun to see the different personalities in your kids.
Sue McCreadie:Like just take the quiz and then see because, like you can see, even with how they you're going to, you know the giver is going to want to give her money away. Like just watch it, you know you've got the spenders, you've got the savers where she earns a lot of money in our family, like the detailed mama child that I birth, she makes a ton of money and she's like very detailed about how she spends it and like releasing it is like a thing. So it's really cool though, you know, just see, seeing that and I think knowing those big thing about influencing children is, you know, or your partner around anything, including money, is know what already influences them. So that was another huge part of my journey, like in partnership with my husband, was that you know, I get to keep you know, knowing that he's a detail person. Like keep on the details, right? Yes, keep, give him the details. This account has this much this, you know. Savings or investment account has that much. Like keep them on the details.
Melissa Joy:Here's what's going on in the business. Exactly Two, because that can often times in a relationship be. You need to report on your business because in most families, if you're an entrepreneur, the family balance sheet is tied to the business, like it or not. You know if something, if the business is not performing well, the family will pay the price, and so you need to have some regular reporting. If you're a business owner of, hey, here's how things are going, here's what to expect. So yeah, that's very powerful, that communication muscle.
Sue McCreadie:Well, it's been a fun ride.
Melissa Joy:That is never ending, just like financial planning and, you know, like a health journey, mindset journey. This is a journey, not a. It's not an action that stops.
Sue McCreadie:Yeah, it's not a quick fix and I say the same in the mindset. You know, marriage, motherhood, world right. The hardest thing I always say with parenting is like patience, persistence, patience, persistence, patience, persistence. Same thing with finances. It's like you just do a little every day and you're consistent with it, and it's the same. It's not. It's not like I've discovered some way to make emotional and mental mastery easier. I just think we've made it more fun with a quick, easy tool belt for moms.
Melissa Joy:I love it. Well, we will make sure to link to show notes, but just can you mention where to find you on social media and our website?
Sue McCreadie:Yes, so I'm at drsumacredycom. And then for my pediatric practice it's pediatric holistic medcom. All my social media handles are at drsumacredy. And then the fun quiz we'll put in the show notes, but it's also you can find it at soulfulmedicinequizcom Love it.
Melissa Joy:Thank you so much for joining us, sue, and here's to that mindset journey. Listeners, let us know how it's going.
Sue McCreadie:Thank you, Melissa.
Melissa Joy:Thank you. Thank you for listening to the Women's Money Wisdom Podcast. If you found value in this episode, the best way you can support the podcast is to forward an episode to a friend or leave a review. Go to pearlplan. com at the podcast link to get all the resources and links mentioned.